16 sets of twins, one set of triplets has their school seeing double

Teachers and administrators at Pembroke’s Community Middle School are seeing double, and even triple, in seventh-grade classrooms. The schools’ seventh-grade has 16 sets of twins and one set of triplets, meaning that multiples make up more than 10 percent of class. Pembroke’s twin count in the seventh gra...

But on the negative side: “You always have to share the same birthdays, and sometimes the same things,” Colton, 12, said.

The good news for Camden and Colton is that they know plenty of people who can relate. The Cappas are one of 16 sets of twins who, along with a set of triplets, make up more than 10 percent of the seventh-grade class at Pembroke Community Middle School.

Pembroke’s twin count in the seventh grade ties the Guinness World Record, albeit unofficially, for the “most twins in the same academic year at one school,” currently held by high school classes in Connecticut, Iowa and Illinois. Pembroke has not yet applied for record status.

Thursday afternoon, all of Pembroke’s seventh-grade twins and triplets gathered in the school cafeteria to meet with a Patriot Ledger photographer and reporter. It was an astonishing sight for middle school Principal Donna McGarrigle.

“I’ve never seen them all together,” McGarrigle said.

McGarrigle came to the realization last year – in her final year as the principal of Hobomock Elementary School – that Pembroke’s graduating class of 2018 was going to have an unusually high number of twins. At Hobomock, a kindergarten-grade 6 school, McGarrigle had nine sets of twins in her sixth-grade class.

When the students from Bryantville, North Pembroke and Hobomock elementary schools entered the middle school last fall, administrators and parents were amazed to learn that the new seventh-grade class had 16 sets of twins, and a set of triplets to boot.

Ed Cappa, Camden and Colton’s father, has already started contacting school officials and Guinness World Records to try to secure Pembroke’s world-record status.

He said applying for a world record is an exhaustive process that includes filling out lots of paperwork, submitting official birth certificates, collecting school documents and eventually getting verification from a Guinness judge.

Pembroke’s twin total likely won’t stand alone in the record books, but Cappa said his town’s mark is more impressive than other records because of the middle school’s relatively small size. There are 313 students in Pembroke’s seventh-grade.

“We’re half the size of their schools,” Cappa said, “but there’s nothing we can do; there’s no small-school or big school categories. There’s only one category.” The record for most sets of multiples – twins, triplets and more – in a single academic class is 19, held by the high school class in Illinois that also shares the twin record. That class has 16 sets of twins and three sets of triplets.

“The good thing is we have 51/2 more years for three more sets to move into Pembroke for the Class of 2018.” Cappa said.

Page 2 of 2 - Grace, Alexis and Madison Monti, the triplets in Pembroke’s seventh-grade class, said they’re subjected to many of the same tiresome questions as their twin classmates, like which sibling is older, taller, smarter or more athletic.

And perhaps the most annoying question of all: Can you feel each other’s pain? “People are always like, ‘Do you feel this?’” Grace, 12, said while pushing against Alexis’ arm. “And I’m like ‘no.’” “I hate that,” Madison chimed in. She later added: “We’re totally different.”

Patrick Ronan, shown at left with his identical twin brother Kyle, may be reached at pronan@ledger.com.